Exclusive Interview: Bachmann Says Obama Was AWOL During Benghazi

Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), one of the most vocal critics of the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi terrorist attack, told The Foundry that she was misled in the aftermath of attack and still lacks key details of President Obama’s response.

“It appears he was AWOL,” Bachmann said.

In an exclusive interview with The Foundry following today’s Conversations with Conservatives event on Capitol Hill, Bachmann said she’s most disturbed by Obama’s failure to reveal how he responded to the attack.

“The President has stonewalled where he was during the whole Benghazi firefight,” Bachmann said. “This happened over the course of a night. It wasn’t 10 minutes long. We have no idea where the President was that night. We have no idea what he was doing, what his directives were.”

Bachmann also took issue with the administration’s response to the American people. Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice all cited an anti-Muslim YouTube video for sparking the attack. Bachmann confirmed that members of Congress were told the same thing privately.

“Of course, we were misled,” she told The Foundry. “It’s just outrageous that the administration thought they could get away with blaming the cause of Benghazi on a false story.”

Heritage’s James Carafano, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies and E. W. Richardson Fellow, said it was disappointing the administration didn’t disclose the facts in the aftermath of the attack.

“I suspected this when I first testified before Congress on the issue shortly after the attack — and listed it as one of the top issues that needed to be answered right way,” Carafano told The Foundry. “It’s tragic that it has taken this long to know the truth. We have to know what went wrong so shortfalls can be addressed. This is crucial information that folks need to thwart the next attack.”

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